actually, tomtuttle, is not exactly correct. a good example is the Oppo BD-83se the Oppo is a blue ray player.. the obvious but the not so obvious, in its 2 channel stereo out put, each channel has 4 DAC's so there is a Lot of sampling. If you read the review there is a significant notice according to the people reviewing this player. They basically went WAY overkill on the stereo section on this unit. They also put a better power supply in the unit as well.

The thing that matters is the quality and number of DAC's that the player has. No matter what kind of player it is. If your using analog outs? You didnt specify what kind of interconnects your wanting to use, HDMI or analog?

Gerry, your question isn't entirely clear, but if you mean can a Blu-ray player play CDs just as well as a "dedicated" CD player can, the answer is yes. Playing CDs has reached a state of technological maturity quite a while ago and even very modestly priced players(including those that also play DVDs and Blu-rays)do so with audibly flat response and inaudibly low noise and distortion. Better than that isn't possible, despite manufacturer claims and fanciful reports of some reviewers.